


Selective Memory

by pageleaf



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, The Crucible - Miller
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-06
Updated: 2012-01-06
Packaged: 2017-10-29 01:43:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/314482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pageleaf/pseuds/pageleaf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>History remembers those it deems responsible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Selective Memory

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a Christmas present for [plalligator](http://plalligator.livejournal.com).

History remembers those it deems responsible. The idiot children and the sheep-like townsfolk and the too-proud men and women who wouldn't confess--it remembers them all, remembers those who hanged and those who did the hanging, remembers the hysteria and the fear.

History remembers the hallucination-causing rot in the rye and thinks _maybe that's why_ , but does not remember the sickly, wasted-away man who ran his fingers covetously along each and every stalk (nor does it remember the tiny, pale child who held his hand, observing his teacher's work soundlessly).

History remembers the lack of food, the hungry need, the willingness to blame anything they could, but does not remember the tall, thin figure who stole all the fish and the good grain, who made the livestock disappear, so that there was no milk, no eggs, no anything.

History remembers the deaths, the hangings, but not the formidable man with the nonetheless forgettable face (almost like he had been wearing a mask) who stood and watched every last one of the hangings, watched them stoically and silently, mostly uncaringly, but with the slightest air of professional satisfaction.

History remembers the trials, but doesn't remember the doctor at the start, the very first one to tell a sick child's father that perhaps he should think to look to unnatural causes. The doctor, no one remembers. He vanished into thin air (but not before his skin turned milky and his hair turned fiery and a woman stood there instead).

History remembers that there never was any witch; there never needed to be.


End file.
